The OS Doorstep - a helpful and supportive thread in these tough times

kezlou

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
nutty :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I can confirm that gloves, hats and wellies which won't got round my thighs are on sale in Primark.
I was also very good and did NOT buy anything, even though i wanted to badly.
Need to new knickers, mine keep falling down and not in a good way!:o


I meant to post last night but i was in such an angry frustrated mood i just read instead.

Stiltwalker hairs in our house are a nightmare, ds2 can't stand brushes and won't have his hair cut. Plus it gets tangled arghhhh
So what i started doing was brushing it through with a little bit of oil just to loosen the brush a bit , works a treat.

I'm starting a new course next week with ds2's school, it called FAST and about parents working with families and school. I've been asked to do it, so thought right i'll consider it. A busy few days next week what with volunteering and charity work.

Had a lovely chat with the school not, basically said to them i'm not happy in the slightest. Pull your finger out you already know what's happened over the summer and i expect you to watch over my child whilst he is your care. If you don't well the consequences are on you. I also got the deputy head and school social worker in trouble for lack of communication and completely ignoring my concerns. But it was all done in a very quiet, low speaking but forceful no-nonsense manner.

Well better go and get ds2 from school , come back and make ham hock soup.

savingqueen

Hi Carlysmum,

Both my boys had speech sound development delay and dsyfluent speech when they were younger. DS6's speech was often very difficult to understand and I would have to listen and look with every ounce of my body concentrating to try and decipher his speech. DS used to get visibly frustrated or give up trying to communicate at all and push his frustrations down deeper still.

He had a great nursery teacher who had some speech therapy training and could be largely understood or at least enough for the staff to get the gist of what he was saying. DS would occasionally refuse to do something like sit on the carpet and I think there was a link between his non-compliance and his speech difficulities and resulting frustrations. if children are unable to express themselves, it will come out somewhere else in their behaviour will be affected.

In reception he had a different less patient and not very well tuned in teacher and his frustration at not being understood again manifested itself in very angry outbursts. Year one saw another great teacher and vast improvement in his speech (together with ongoing suppport at home and with his learning mentor) and lo and behold his behaviour improved and he is is calm, happy, settled child now in year 2 (fingers crossed)

Obviously every child is different but having personal experiences of communciation difficulties with myself and both my children, I have found a lot of emotional issues are linked and need support as much as the original speech problems.

The other point is his age, he is so young and lots of children his age need time to adapt to school life, even those without any extra needs.

With regards to punishment, we learnt the hard way. We tried every gentle tactic, all the talking and support etc and still DS behaved inappropriately at times at school (and less so at home) and when his behaviour was at its most challenging, we came down on him like a ton of bricks (not in a physical way, things like taking away all his treats and privileges and being extremely firm with him) It didn't take me very long, about 2 days to realise that the punishments were not working or appropriate, he wasn't misbehaving for the sake of it, he was crying out for support and help. Once I realised how much he needed us to support him unconditionally (not saying he wasn't talked to etc about inappropriate behaviour or excused) and we were able to give him that unconditional support, we turned a corner.

Lastly big hugs to you. I haven't had time to read all the posts so apologies if I haven't read a later post from you. I just couldn't read and run.


hugs to all, back later to share news and catch up with other posts

sq:)

mardatha

I hereby want to proclaim and trumpet that I am not responsible in any way for people in this thread going mad and buying wool, roving, fleeces, or sheep!! :A I would never, ever do such an awful thing.
I got rid of the RV today and have been playing with soap. Was pottering around in the back room talking to meself (out loud) about foot scrubs - looked up and there was a wee man with ladders stood outside looking at me :eek: This never happens here!
- he was the roofer. Only 4 days late, but he came, he saw, he fixed it. But all the while keeping one eye on me and looking very nervous..

ginnyknit

Well you certainly kept him on his toes Mar, probably telling anyone who will listen about the 'witch in the wilds' :rotfl:

You are totally irresponsible for people buying woolly stuff - is that the word? not responsible may be better I am buying a full fleece, managed to con hubby that I really need one :rotfl:

Hubby is on the phone to his new support worker re his mental health - at last :j

Hester glad you didnt have to go out its far too chilly to go commando, good thing is you can now buy things more cheaply now you are smaller - I will be in Primarni sizes soon and will slowly buy nice new things. I really need new yoga pants ( I wear them indoors) as mine fall down half way across the room.

carlymummy

Princess thank you for your post
Savingqueen thank you so much for your post too, it really lifted my soul as that is exactly how my son is being - at the start of each week the teacher he has is very old school , strict, with only one child who is mid teens now, the teacher he has from Wednesday onwards is much younger, much more relaxed and has 5 year old twins so I think she understands how kids can be and is a bit more relaxed. I have just collected him and although he wasn't sitting on the carpet with the other children he was looking for me though the window in the reading corner he wasn't 'misbehaving' as I expected to see, also the teacher didn't say anything to me, just smiled and sent him out to meet me. I also sometimes struggle to understand what he is trying to tell us and that leads to tantrums and we are used to his speech at school I don't suppose the staff have a clue what he is trying to tell them, he came home with a note to say he had fallen and bumped his lower back (it is bruised but not badly) they said they didn't know how it had happened, my son told us at home that a girl pushed him over which makes sense for it to be his lower back that was bumped but school staff obviously didn't understand him I shall go into the meeting as open minded as possible, but at home we are carrying on as normal. He is currently sitting playing with his Thomas trains and track as good as gold, waiting for his tea to cook. Sad to think really that our children aren't allowed to be children anymore, especially in education.
Thanks to everyone who read/replied to my moaning posts.
Off to sort the boys some tea out and top up my pain killers I don't know if the weather turning colder or the stress of the school situation has triggered it but I am crippled with my arthritis at the moment.
x

savingqueen

Glad to help a little carlymummy - please feel free to PM me anytime, even just for a shoulder (I have two so happy to lend one out )

Proud parent/relieved parent experience yesterday. Some of you might remember the issues we had with DS6 in his swimming class over the last couple of years (2 separate incidents in 2 separate pools involving DS being "rescued" after a major meltdown, not fun for anyone.)

Anyway I managed to find (and pay for) 5 private 1-2-1 lessons with a wonderful secondary school sports teacher in the summer term. Yesterday DS6 joined a new swimming class with his big brother and we had no anxiety or meltdowns, just swimming.
I am mightily relieved for DS's sake (school swimming lessons start next year) and very proud watching my very determined lad swim the best part of a length without any swim aids. :j

sq:)

[Deleted User]

Well done young MASTER SQ, brilliant stuff and well done to his Mum for making it happen and keeping him from being scared, HOORAH!!!

fuddle

Would you take the credit for my family being toasty warm should the heating go off though Mar ... Like I need much encouragement where woolly things go (so pleased I checked predictive text for woolly! Goodness)

Pooky

You know when you've read the thread and then promptly forget everything you've read???? Yep - that's me. So hugs to all - even if you dont want one. It's not negotiable

Had to be at DHs physio appointment at 8.30 this morning - its not easy to get out that time of day as DH needs a good few hours to get going and I'm trying to get DD's out the door to school/college. Traffic was dreadful, the road to the hospital was closed and the diversion went past every school child in the country, all of which wanted to test our brakes.....by the time we got there I'd cricked my neck and had a thumping headache. Hey ho. Physio has signed him back to the London team, who no doubt will drag him all the way up for a 20 minute chat....and so it goes on.

Had an influx of small furry dead things today - 5 outside on the patio, 2 halves in the kitchen and I just found a live one sitting in the cats food bowl! As long as they're not eating my stores!

I had some mohair wool that someone gifted me but I couldn't use it, it made me sneeze and my hands itch. I passed it on to someone else who didn't have a problem with it -I wonder if that would be the same with all wool?

monnagran

Hi all,

Have just read through the last couple of pages and am feeling a bit breathless.

Mar: I can well believe that you put on 2 pounds after an itsy bit of cake. Me? I can put on 2 pounds by breathing too deeply.

Fuddle: I am not surprised that your sister was horrified by the price of wood. I had a woodburner in the cottage and it was wonderful at keeping the whole cottage warm, but if I hadn't had my own woods which kept me supplied I could never have afforded to buy from a timber merchant. As it was, it was jolly hard work. My lovely neighbour's son used to drag the wood back up to the house with his quad bike, but then there was the business of getting it sawn, chopped and stacked. When I could no longer do it myself or lean on my sons to do it I had to pay someone else to do it. No, it's lovely to have a real fire but it's not cheap.

carlymummy: My heart goes out to your little boy. I taught in reception for years and although in my day children didn't start school until after their fifth birthday I still thought it was too early. In those days classes were a lot bigger and there were no such things as TAs. Also children didn't have the opportunity to go to playgroups or nurseries. It was nothing for me to be faced with 45 five-year-olds who had never left their mothers before.

I don't think people realise what a strange environment school is to a child. All those children en-masse to deal with. Being expected to sit on the floor for what must seem like ages. And how would they know what 'get into a line' entailed or how to 'sit up straight'. It's a whole different world so no wonder they they get stressed. Keep every thing normal at home and hope that the school has the patience to let him settle at his own pace.

Hester: Oh, you might protest that you only go knickerless because you don't have any to fit, but you forget that I know you too well. Time was when you used to meet your DH not only knickerless but every other other sort of clothesless as well. HaHa! Did you think I'd forgotten?

My head is all over the place at the moment. We had the most amazing celebration of the Rev's 4 years here yesterday. The church was packed and as someone said, there was so much love in the place that you could almost touch it. So many poignant moments, the Drop-in client who told of how we had helped him turn his life around, the little lady with learning difficulties who could only say, "Thank you. I just want to say thank you," over and over again, the British Legion who presented her with a veterans badge to prove that she was really old - the Guides, the Boy's Brigade, even the ladies who do the church flowers (the Rev calls them her "Flower Fairies") plus lots of others all wanting to give their own tribute. The music was sensational, that church really rocked! Then we had the bun fight in the hall. A super evening and I just wish that the Church hierarchy had been there to see it.

Back to ordinary life today. Do you remember the baguette mountain I had after the Bestival last year? Well, I have another one, not to mention a pitta bread mountain and a lettuce mountain and 5 dozen eggs and countless lemons and.................. HELP!

x